By chance, world leaders and I are in Geneva today, on peace missions of different sorts. I don’t envy them theirs, but I’m relieved they’ve found their way to it. And events of the past two weeks spur reflection on the ways in which his big mission and my little one intersect.

I arrived in Switzerland feeling quite concerned about potential US military strikes against Syria and their uncertain consequences, but it was inner peacemaking that brought me here this time: an irresistible invitation to jump in and help a group of dear Swiss friends put on a three-day program with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan meditation master of the Bön tradition. I’ve long and much appreciated Rinpoche through his writings and webcasts, but hadn’t had the chance to see him in person until now.

One of the perks of hosting such an event (in addition to the karma cookies) is the opportunity to spend a little time in the company of an inspiring human — an educator who lives what he teaches, who embodies peace and kindness while he works to spread them.

Naturally, Rinpoche, too, was concerned about Syria, as we quickly learned. A Swiss TV team had picked him up from the airport in order to have a bit of time with him before filming an interview at the place where we awaited him, the home of two of my friends who were part of the team organizing the event. Not long after he walked in the door and greeted us with hugs, we got to talking. Rinpoche, who now lives in the US when not traveling internationally to teach, asked if I thought the US would strike.

It was looking likely. President Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace merely for a campaign promise to abandon the mad cowboy aggression of the Dubya years, was poised to nab a second award for contortionism, adopting the unilateral warrior’s stance while attempting to project a compassionate face. Just last Tuesday, responding to increasing public opposition, Obama said, “when with modest effort we can stop children from being gassed to death… I believe we should act.”

A Deeper Look at the Libya Crisis

No one of sound mind wants children to die — of any cause, let alone such a truly horrible one as chemical weapons. So, clearly, action of some kind is called for. But a rational person must ask what kind of action seems most likely to achieve the desired result. Is it military intervention, intensified diplomatic pressure, or other nonviolent solutions?

More to the point: What historical precedent provides any confidence that a “modest effort” with bombs might be a dependable way to restore peace in the Middle East? If anything, don’t all of the Asian military campaigns of the past half century suggest the opposite? And if a “modest” bombing were to depose Syria’s Bashir al-Assad, who would fill the vacuum, and how would they behave toward those Syrians with whom they don’t feel aligned?

Another (most deserving) Nobel Peace laureate, Archibishop Desmond Tutu, put it plainly in an interview published in yesterday’s Financial Times: “You’re going to smash him [Assad] to smithereens, and what do you put in his place? Because that’s not going to solve the crisis in Syria, because you have all kinds of factions there, it’s better to try the long route…”

Tutu, as perhaps the world’s most authoritative living voice on national-scale conflict resolution, should be given our most attentive ear when he speaks on this complex and unpredictable issue. But let’s face it: At this point in human evolution, the “long route” is not our strong suit. As a species, we are capable of fantastic feats of creativity and perseverance under optimal conditions, but we tend to be less likely to rely on those gifts under stress.

In crisis mode, we tend to lose our patience, our finesse, and often our common sense. Why? These three days with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche would shed some light on this.

Over a polyglot lunch (languages spoken at the table included French, Italian, German, Spanish, Tibetan, Hindi, and English), gazing across a serene lake in Fribourg Canton, Rinpoche mentioned that recently he had watched a documentary on the Cuban Missile Crisis, a case study in the escalation of fear that very nearly led to a nuclear confrontation between the USA and the USSR. We observed parallels: increasingly strident political rhetoric, fearmongering in the media, and a conspicuous absence of serious multilateral diplomacy. Once the psychological machinery of war is set in motion, it is difficult to park.

A Deeper Look at Human Nature

After a siesta, we took Rinpoche to the venue, an art gallery in Bulle run by friends, where he was to deliver a public talk to kick off the first night of the program. But just as we rolled into the parking lot, Rinpoche announced he wanted take a quick walk, and asked if I’d like to join him. This was the sort of tête-à-tête I had quietly held hope for without any expectation, so I was delighted. As we hit the sidewalk, he joked, “I’m supposed to give a talk on the awakening mind, and what would help my mind awaken is a cup of coffee.”

The only place in Bulle I knew for a proper cuppa, a bistro called “le 43,” was just a block away, so off we went, briskly. “Une tasse de café, s’il vous plaît,” and the bartender set to pouring. I wanted to get the check but Rinpoche beat me to it, offering to treat me to a cup as well. But he had only euros, and I had only dollars, so we both drew our plastic, only to see the bartender shake his head apologetically.

Witnessing this, one of the patrons at the bar, suit-clad, fresh off work, turned to us and said with a hearty mountain smile, in richly textured, Swiss French-accented English, “Let me buy your coffee. Welcome to Bulle.” Rinpoche’s reply drew a laugh: “Now I feel like ordering dinner!” He and I were touched by this kind generosity toward strangers, and we spent the next ten minutes happily sipping espresso while he offered me tactful and helpful reflections on staying balanced and healthy while living a busy life (with the option of the occasional caffeine boost).

Returning to the gallery, Rinpoche paused briefly just before the threshold and switched gears with one breath. The jovial and soft-spoken friend we had spent the day with instantly transformed into a powerful orator, concisely delivering a stream of penetrating insight into the nature of consciousness and our human capacity to find connection and fulfillment within, and thereby interact with the world more effectively and more gracefully. In the course of this, he presented an overview of what his tradition refers to as the “nine winds” a taxonomy representing states of individual and collective consciousness, ordered from the most sublime to the most agitated. The ninth and last of these translates as “era-destroying wind,” which Rinpoche defines as the escalation of fear within a society (or group or relationship) to the point of self-destruction. [For more on era-destroying wind and the rest of the nine winds, see Rinpoche’s book, Awakening the Sacred Body.]

The truth of this is clear when we look honestly at our lives and our world. Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience research confirm what contemplatives of many traditions have known for centuries: tension (physical/mental/emotional) is the enemy of clear thinking, good choices, and effective action. As tension increases, the human mind becomes a progressively blunter instrument. Conversely, the more we connect with stillness (of body, mind, and spirit), the more the mind becomes supple and thinking becomes clearer and increasingly nuanced and creative.

In this light, we see the problem of escalation holistically. The threat of violence overheats us. Fearmongering in the public discourse polarizes us by making nuanced thinking more difficult — not only emotionally, but also on a physical, biological level. It squeezes all subtlety out of the room and leaves only crude options on the table. A limitless world of possibilities is reduced to primitive binaries: to hit or not to hit.

When pushed to the furthest extremes of fear, humans are ready to kill with no rational thought of the possible consequences. And when this happens on a societal scale, that is the “era-destroying wind” described by the sages — the very worst potential of our nature.

So, How to Get Back to the Best in Us?

There is a physical, biologically-driven necessity for us to cool off, to connect with the stillness that is always within us, as an aspect of our nature, so that we regain access to the serenity, sensitivity, and creativity that support to our best thinking, catalyze our most inspired solutions, and engender enough trust between people to give peaceful proposals a chance to succeed. We must first connect with the best in ourselves, and then open ourselves to connect with the best in one another.

“Peace begins within” might sound hackneyed or hippie, but this isn’t about some indulgent personal bliss. It’s a pragmatic prescription for safety, stability, and prosperity. And, when push comes well beyond shove, it is the key to our survival, as individuals and potentially as a species.

Try as we might (and must), we can’t pacify the entire world, of course, but we can pacify our own responses to tense situations. And if enough of us do that, then that changes the world.

For more on Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, including a free video archive of recorded talks, see ligmincha.org.

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I just came home from an exhilarating (and exhausting) day volunteering for the Obama campaign in Colorado. Knocking on doors in Jefferson County, one of the most polarized in the nation (characterized as “the swing county of the swing state”), I learned a lot about my neighbors and about the new political landscape of the country.

Miles to go before we sleep

What impressed me most was this: It was unmistakably clear that, in this squeaky-tight race, it was the ground teams who won it. So many people worked so hard for so long, and many more dropped in when they could, as I did. With millions of phone calls and countless face-to-face conversations, the ground teams worked relentlessly.

What were these people actually doing, and why was it so critical to the outcome? The core of it is this: To win a tight race, you need to identify every supporter and potential supporter in your area, make a reasonable effort to win over any undecided voters (hopefully without annoying or alienating them), make sure all your supporters are registered on time, and then once voting starts you call every number and knock on every door (feeling terrible about bugging people but knowing there’s simply no way to win in a “battleground state” without being really thorough and persistent), rinse and repeat, until you’ve confirmed that every last sympathetic soul has voted, even if you have to get them to carpools or drive them to the polls yourself. It’s a Herculean gig, multiplied across hundreds of cities and towns. One couldn’t possibly find enough people for this job, so while nobody wants to cause burnout, everyone who is willing to overwork is overworked, by necessity. They try to keep the work fun and reasonable for the drop-in volunteers, but for the core team it’s full blast from start to finish.

Everyone I met at two different Obama campaign offices, and on the street, was beyond exhausted and yet still giving it all until (and even after) the polls closed. And, to their great credit, they were also doing their best to remain, friendly, helpful, understanding, and patient with every new volunteer who arrived. In a typical work environment, this combination of extreme fatigue and high pressure would break most people to the point of being snappy and rude. Personally, I saw none of that. It was an extraordinarily positive experience in every way.

What drove these people to work so hard, with such spirit? I’m happy to report that it was not antipathy toward Governor Romney. I was pleasantly surprised that I heard not a single disparaging comment about Romney or about Republicans. No, these volunteers had a nobler motivation: a good, old-fashioned sense of civic duty — patriotism — which for them expresses as a wish for everyone in this country to have a better chance of thriving. And these rational, sensible citizens of a very “purple” state had made the informed assessment that Obama was the candidate who would best serve the interests of all people.

In the final hour, the campaign office was nearly empty as volunteers hit the streets to make sure everyone had voted.

Of course, many of them were also inspired by Barack Obama as a human (in addition to being confident in both his policy priorities and his ability and commitment to make them happen) and that inspiration fueled the extra mile. It seemed clear that many of these volunteers may have put in some time for another Democratic candidate, but probably would not have worked this hard for a less inspiring candidate. If this assessment is true, it means that, considering the very narrow margin of victory, even a slightly less inspiring candidate surely would’ve lost here in Colorado. And, from my talks with friends who volunteered in other states (including Ohio), it seems that may well have been true elsewhere as well.

Swing state street smarts: If you want to become (or remain) the President of the United States in these times, you had better give a broad base of people some profoundly compelling reasons not just to vote for you, not just to make calls or write checks for you, but to go to the wall for you.

The US is a place where the word democracy describes the theory more than the practice. While the nation has always been a democratic republic on paper and in potential, in real life it is verydifficult to achieve the actual practice of democracy in the context of an increasingly plutocratic oligarchy (de facto rule by the wealthiest few) with an electorate that is relatively uninformed about political end economic realities and thus too easily manipulated into voting against their own interests and those of their children, their communities, and their planet. This is thanks in part to failures of our education systems, and perhaps in even larger part due to a dumbed-down and deceptive political discourse exacerbated by a mostly shallow and sensationalistic 24-hour news media paradigm. But, even with those odds stacked high against the prospects of true democracy, the fact (as two Obama campaigns have proven) is that it is possible to achieve a degree of actually-functioning democracy in this country when sufficient numbers of people are willing to work hard enough for it.

Debriefing (with smiles) after the polls closed

And here in purple Colorado, “work hard enough” means really, really, really hard. One could feel that it shouldn’t be this hard, but it is, at least for now. Countless people gave their all, and kept giving long after all their energy was spent… and even this beyond-heroic effort was just barely enough. That’s what it takes these days to counter the influence of Big Money and Small Ethics in politics.

I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of the ground-team experience, and I would encourage everyone to give it a go next time around. No matter how one may feel about the electoral process, it can’t hurt to gain a better understanding of how it works.

And if you’re happy with the outcome of the election, thank a volunteer. They built that.

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I just spent the evening with Former President Bill Clinton, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, and hundreds of other engaged citizens in Denver. The setting was a high school gym in one of the Mile High City’s lowest-income neighborhoods, with the locals turned out in their Sunday best, eager to hear a proven past president’s take on the last four years and the next. After several passionate speeches from the Governor, the Mayor, and other local leaders, the most popular politician in the US today took the stage to “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and enthusiastic applause. It was an extraordinarily warm vibe, and a new friend i’d met waiting in the long line to get in (a New Yorker stranded in Denver by Superstorm Sandy) and i both remarked at once that it was surprising that there was no visible security presence in the building at all. A strong sense of trust in both directions, here.

President Clinton makes the case for responsible government (and for President Obama’s priorities) in a way that no one else does, and i wish more people were hearing his message. The issues he’s focusing on are far more consequential than most of the arguments one hears rehashed relentlessly in the news, and of course he famously has a way of explaining the complexities of politics and economics in ways that the lay person can understand. Clinton cuts through that fog that prevents some people from seeing this election as a clear and stark choice between the two candidates.

He covered fiscal responsibility, tax policy, health care, and women’s issues, of course, but he also pleasantly surprised me by spending the most time talking about how critical investment in education is for the present and the future, and especially in the current political and economic climate. He delivered a deep and powerful aside specifically about the major differences between Obama and Romney on student loans, which he characterized as so important for the future of the country that this single difference alone would be reason enough to vote for Obama if we really understand the implications of student loan policy for the future of US society. Of course, as both an educator and a caring citizen, i agree completely, and i was tremendously grateful that he gave the issue so much airtime.

The two-term president who engineered the strongest economy the US has seen in several decades also spoke (in his eminently authoritative yet supremely relatable way) about the how and why of the “change takes time” argument in a situation such as the nation found itself in in 2008 after eight years of political, economic, and military catastrophe. Lending credence to the idea that one characteristic of US culture is a very short collective memory for facts, the President had to remind everyone that, like the current President, he (Clinton) had also inherited an unprecedented deficit and debt generated during the twelve years of Republican tax cuts and war spending before him. When he reminded the crowd that it also took him all four years of his first term just to right the ship and balance the books, and it was only in his second term that the economy started to rise above the water, the click of understanding was almost audible, palpable.

The good people of this neighborhood had been so enthusiastic about Barack Obama in 2008, only to fall into despair as change proved slow to come. But now one could see it sinking in: By the power of truth spoken plainly and clearly with trust in the intelligence of the audience, at once the spell of unrealistic expectations was broken and a more grounded sense of appreciation for the present and real potential for the future was born. The conversations i overheard as the crowd dispersed revolved around the same theme: yes, change takes time.

I, too, have serious grievances with some of President Obama’s choices (from indiscriminately murderous drone strikes across the Middle East to the unconscionably irresponsible deregulation of Monsanto, and more) but, nonetheless, a close look at the issues, and at the priorities of both candidates, reveals clearly that Obama’s approach to leadership and governance is vastly and incomparably more compassionate, sensible, and constructive (not to mention honest) than that of his opponent in this election. I voted for Obama in 2008 and again last week, not because i ever thought he could wave his wand to manifest an instant utopia, but because i believe he understands three of the most critical realities that will shape the future of this country (and, to some extent, the world):

There is an urgent need to reform government spending to make it far more effective and efficient, but to make draconian cuts in spending during a massive recession is societal suicide, and therefore there’s simply no way around raising taxes right now in order to save the country. (Don’t take my word for it: listen to a Nobel laureate economist.)

There is no route to a prosperous future and a thriving society without making aggressive and intelligent investments in education. Without a strong and healthy system of public schools, community colleges, and universities, there is simply no way to avert future decline. Who would build a prosperous future if few are trained and empowered by a well-rounded education?

Climate change is a reality that, if not acknowledged as an emergency and responded to with great skill and determination, all too probably will lead to accelerated destruction of property and infrastructure, declines in public health, and other grave consequences of mass scale (all of which are also impossibly expensive problems, by the way). Yet, despite all the evidence of this, there’s little extra money lying around just now and little political will to spend it wisely on environmental prudence. This means the only way forward is exactly the strategy President Obama began implementing in his first few months: green jobs. Put the need to create jobs together with the need to address the climate change emergency, and with some ingenuity we can feed two birds with one seed by creating a healthy economy and a healthy environment in one stroke. That’s good, smart, efficient government.

President Obama is clearly and strongly on the right side of all three of these issues, and Governor Romney is clearly and strongly on the wrong side of all three (according to his own statements of policies and priorities). No matter how one feels about all the other important issues on which the two candidates differ, the stark contrast on the three issues above — and the dire consequences we’ll all be forced to face if the country moves the wrong way — are reason enough that everyone would be wise to vote to give the President another term.

In such a high-stakes election season, it deeply inspired me to see hundreds of people in Denver who care enough about the welfare of others that they will set aside a lot of their time to volunteer to help register voters and make sure they get to vote, in an effort to make life for the disadvantaged people of society a little less difficult, and to ensure that everyone (regardless of home team allegiance) is protected by the policies and practices of a President who has the best interests of all people in mind.

Many of those around me were struck, as i was, by the strength of Clinton’s endorsement of Obama, especially compared with the lukewarm endorsements of 2008. The past president held nothing back in praising the current one, convincingly, credibly, and compellingly. He made of point of saying that he was skeptical and critical of Candidate Obama in 2008, but now that he’s seen President Obama in action for four years, his opinion has changed fundamentally and he is absolutely certain that Obama knows exactly what needs to be done, and simply needs another four years to do it.

I have to agree.

To my US friends: I hope you’ll vote in this election, and while i respect your ethical obligation to vote for whomever you believe to be best, i hope you will consider the three issues i mentioned above very carefully, because i believe that President Obama is clearly the wiser choice, not for ideological or partisan reasons (of which i have neither), but because of the real consequences for all of us — for the entire 100% of US society, and for the world — now, and for a long time to come.

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Thanks to the gracious hospitality of my Uncle Pat and Aunt Yong, recent transplants to Seoul, i had a precious opportunity to stop over in Korea for nearly a week on my way back to India (after a whirlwind maintenance visit to the US with some short but sweet family time). I knew very little about Korea before i arrived but, not being one to miss a good chance to discover a new corner of planet earth, i jumped.

For those of you who don’t know Korea but do know a Koreatown in a city near you, picture that Koreatown and then visualize it going on and on until it’s big enough for over ten million people. Then add an excellent subway and bus system, some impressive old temples, and enthusiastically helpful people, and you have an approximation of Seoul. Almost nobody speaks English, but they love charades, so getting around is fun with the right attitude. It’s apparently very safe, as well.

But, as pleasant as Seoul was by city standards, the greatest treasures of Korea lay in the old Buddhist temples of the south, in the region around Gyeongju. Built in the 7th and 8th centuries, these architectural wonders (many now protected as UNESCO World Heritage sites) are elegant reminders of an age when relaxing the mind was a top national priority. Don’t make ’em like they used to (neither temples nor nations, it would seem, and one could make a case about minds as well…).

A highlight: sweating my way up the sacred and picturesque postcardy mountain of Palgongsan to reach the ancient temple of Donghwasa, only to discover at the top that, well, Donghwasa isn’t there. Everyone had pointed me that way, no doubt because that’s the way i was already headed (i should’ve figured). But a very kind young local couple (an LG engineer and a college student) who were hiking on the mountain for a date (Koreans are SERIOUS about hiking) were kind enough to walk me all the way back down and over to the entrance of the temple, just ’cause they’re nice like that. The temple compound of Bulguksa was also a must-see, must-sit, and/or must-have-picture-taken-petting-golden-pig.

Our Own Private Truman Show

Back in Seoul, i had the privilege to visit a perhaps unlikely tourist destination. The US Army base is 4000+ acres of carefully reconstructed American suburbia, complete with a Starbucks, three schools, a golf course (virtually the only facility on base that doesn’t run a budget deficit), and its own fire station and health inspection department (to keep the Pizza Hut and Subway in line, of course), all sitting on prime real estate in the middle of Seoul with a very expensively secured perimeter. The US base in Seoul is a military Truman Show with the biggest Burger King indoor playground you’ve ever seen. If you pay taxes in the US, you might be pleased to know that, thanks to your $60+ million per year in infrastructural support funding, everyone on base is living comfortably despite the Army’s inefficient management. Possibly more comfortably than you, but who’s counting?

As a pragmatist who concedes the reality that, like it or not, the US will continue to have a massive worldwide military presence for the foreseeable future, and who believes it would be in everyone’s best interest for the US military budget (and global presence) to be scaled back considerably without giving active duty troops or veterans the short end, i have long wondered how best to pull that off responsibly. Always looking for the win-win, i was very pleased to learn (in some detail, thanks to my uncle’s expertise) that there are hundreds of millions of dollars that could be saved every year by taking the US military out of the business of building and managing entire universes. The military isn’t especially good at building and maintaining cities (and it shouldn’t have to be), and just imagine the unwieldy task of managing a global constellation of them. It’s a phenomenally expensive exercise in incompetence, waste, and diffused focus (to say nothing of the complex issues related to international perception of the proliferation of US military bases, which is another conversation).

Win-win solution: Keep the training facilities under the military domain, OK, but, as for all the support infrastructure, let others who are good at that stuff handle it. This is a case in which various private sector players (hopefully with an appropriately competitive bidding process) can do a much better job with those things on a much smaller budget, and the hundreds of millions in savings can be divided between, oh, let’s say, for starters, taking better care of veterans, advancing sustainable energy independence, and improving schools back at home. Is that not a win-win? There are task forces inside the military who know clearly that it is, there are good folks like my uncle advocating for it strongly, and there would be politicians on both sides of the aisle who would see the good sense of it. Unfortunately, so far it has been in nobody’s political interest to push it through the US Congress because (a) the general public is utterly without information on the issue, and (b) consequently, the only lobbying is from the special interests defending the status quo. Such downsizing of support infrastructure is clearly the smartest thing to do, and one of the best ways to save a LOT of money (in some cases half of peacetime expenditures if not more), but it isn’t popular, mostly because some folks would need to find new jobs and/or new golf courses… and, well, it’s “change.”

***

Dara the Plumber

Speaking of “change,” back home in Bir (that’s our new digs in the Indian Himalayas, in case you didn’t catch that last time), the kitchen sink stopped up for a spell while we were cooking for a dear friend visiting from Colorado. I fiddled with it for a minute to no avail but, a moment later, Dara emerged from pipeland victorious, with slimy fingers and her characteristic grin, announcing, “Dara the Plumber endorses Barack Obama!”

Just in case any of you in the US considered staying home for this one, i should mention that the whole world over here is counting on you to vote. For better or worse, US elections are bigger than the US. I’m meeting countless people from all over who have never tracked a US presidential election in detail before this one, but they sure are now, and i have yet to meet a single non-US citizen who’d prefer to see McCain in the Big Oval. And it’s fascinating to witness the myriad contortions of faces from different cultures when the name of his running mate is mentioned… To put it kindly, the USA has made herself a curiosity among nations.

Indeed, at this point, the damage to the US’s international image is so severe that even a hypothetical president of superhuman wisdom and power would not be able to restore her honor and integrity in a single four-year term. And, to be honest, i’m not convinced Obama can or will deliver much of the kind of change that i personally would like to see, and i’m particularly concerned that his foreign policy may prove still too aggressive to be in anyone’s best interest. But i do believe that in this election Obama is the best chance the US has to take at least a few important steps away from provincial gunslinger bravado abroad and wholesale swindling at home and toward bringing a modicum of humanity, decency, and integrity to a White House that has lacked those qualities for too long.

Of course, all things that change will change again, and things that change one way can turn again to the other, so the best we can do is get started and take it as far as we can, as wisely as we can, before the next inevitable reversal of the pendulum.

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Buongiorno from Venice, which i thought i’d better see before it sinks much further. Lately, it’s flooding more frequently and more severely, and it’s chilling to drift around this jewel of history and imagine that, within as few as 20 years (if some scientists’ predictions come true) the first floor or two of every building in Venezia could become aquaria. I’m imagining schools of tourists snorkeling around the ghost town like a shipwreck, gawking at the pesci dining in the bistros where once they were dined upon, while the tenaciously adaptable Venetians (the few who can still afford to live in ever-gentrifying Venice) get out their tools and move the old front doors up two flights of steps. 2028: the 3rd floor is the new 1st floor.

Saved by music & poetry

Yesterday in Vienna, after a tasty breakfast of organic beet salad and “veganer schnitzel,” i did part of my morning meditation in the Secession Museum, in the company of Gustav Klimt’s epic frieze in honor of Beethoven and the revolution of virtue Klimt saw in his chart-topping 9th symphony. Motivated by both compassion and the desire for personal gain, the most virtuous of humans wage ethical combat against the forces of darkness and decay, but in the end even the mightiest of men cannot stop it… not even the gods can defeat it… yet, in the final battle, a woman with a lyre plays the trump card of music and poetry, opening the door to the Ideal Kingdom. (Sister, could you play a little louder, please? We could use your help.)

Carnage, in its many forms

The exhibit upstairs was case in point: first, hundreds of the most gruesome photos of slain humans, murdered brutally; and then, further in, the same photos, but this time it’s seals, clubbed and hacked to death for their fur and meat. A few dozen mannequins march in protest, joined across time and space by a parade of Tibetans marching in photographic solidarity, while an elderly Balkan woman in a wheelchair holds a placard asking for change… in the person of Barack Obama. Surely no single person could be Klimt’s harpist for all humanity, but give me Obama and the lyre or, better yet, give me the Dalai Lama and ample time to cultivate the active love he exemplifies, and reflections like this every morning, to remind me why i’m here and keep that extra wind in my sails.

Back in the Himalayas

My bro Todd and i were set to join our pa-la for a trip to Tibet and Mongolia, from which we would’ve just now returned, had we not had to postpone the trip on account of the fact that the Chinese government (currently preoccupied with massacres of Tibetans), wouldn’t let us in — they closed the entire region of Tibet to foreign visitors. In the meantime, we’ve been facilitating discussion about the crackdowns at KN/DEVI, hosting nightly events packed with concerned global citizens, which, if nothing else, gives us all a chance to gather in a human response, and gives our Tibetan staff some small comfort. It’s hard to know if all the caring people in the world could change the course of the Beijing juggernaut, and honestly i’m skeptical, but… we do what we can, right?

Todd and the KN crew

While we were there, Todd inspired us to do some ambitious renovation. Fixing, sanding, painting, cleaning, and lots of good fun. We updated the menu with a few new dishes, too, and now KN is shining more brightly than she has in years (Thanks, Todd!). It’s a joy to see the place in full swing, and to see so many people enjoying it so much.

Having finished a several-month-long heroic push at KN, Dara has just begun another kind of adventure: a traditional three-month monsoon retreat at an international Buddhist women’s center just outside of Dharamshala. She’s all smiles to have some time to focus on the inner work. As am i! 🙂

An Auspicious Setback

And for those of you who have been asking for an update on our efforts to establish our new eco-campus for sustainable village development and service retreats, well, there’s much to tell. First, as you may know, we were offered land in the West Bengal hills (near Kalimpong, in the Darjeeling district). Well, what some generous humans giveth, some selfish humans taketh away: Starting late last fall, the whole region went up in political flames (not only figuratively) as a tiny minority of disgruntled and/or opportunistic Gurkhalis (ethnic Nepalis uprooted by generations of military service) revived a sometimes-violent (and always inconvenient) movement for an independent state. The stated rationale for Gurkhaland is sensible enough (Gurkhalis comprise the majority in the area, and the Bengal state government utterly neglects them, so let them rule themselves), but the methods of the movement tend to be both despotic and ineffectual (an unfortunate combination) and, because they’re as relentless as they are inept, the pain never ends. They keep the whole region locked down for weeks on end with forced shop closures, road closures, and heart closures. Very sad. And not particularly conducive to building a retreat center, by the way, especially when they expel all the “foreigners” now and again.

So, between the political chaos and the fact that we learned of a government plan to build a road right through the middle of the land we were offered, we put the Bengal project on hold indefinitely, packed our bags and headed back hOMe to Himachal Pradesh. And, as life goes, this is turning out to be much for the better, as it has given us the opportunity to stumble upon an even more appealing prospect in the tiny, quiet Himalayan town of Bir, just 2-3 hours east-southeast of Dharamshala by road. You’ve seen Bir if you’ve watched Khyentse Norbu’s excellent film, The Cup, which insightfully conveys some of the quirky idyll of Bir. And Khyentse Rinpoche’s Deer Park Institute is a mighty magnet for world-class teachers of Indian wisdom traditions.

In short, we’re still on the road to build the Dharmalaya Institute, but now 1000 or so miles to the west and a fruitful year or two later. A delightful little team of angels has converged around the cause, and we’ve been looking at several pieces of land. We’ll keep looking a bit more in the fall, and around that time we imagine we’ll nab a piece and start slowly building this mud-brick-and-bamboo paradise. What will actually happen is of course anyone’s guess, but we’re pointing our prow in that direction. For inquiring minds, there’s more about the vision on the Dharmalaya website.

Meanwhile, i’m off to Geneva tomorrow to reconnect with our dear Swiss friends to explore the creation of an Earthville chapter in the land of yodels and strudels so we can build long, high bridges between the Alps and the Himalayas.

Sending love to all points on the compass…

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After the intensity of our inner and outer experiences of recent weeks, my friend Artyom and i were ready for a holiday. We hired a jeep to Sikkim, had good talks and good momos, and then he caught a jeep eastward to Rumtek Monastery (the exile HQ of the previous Karmapa, though the Indian government still won’t allow the current incarnation to take his seat there, or even visit, for fear that China would be none too pleased) and i caught a series of local share jeeps northwest to Ravangla, one of several towns in a breathtaking cluster of centuries-old mountaintop settlements worthy of the mythic moniker of “Shangri-la.”

After a magical, nearly dead-silent day of rest and reflection in a cabin on a hill above Ravangla, near Kewzing, i hitched a ride onward to Gyelzing with some grad students from Gangtok who were conducting a state-sponsored survey of all of Sikkim’s schools to assess their material needs so the state government can fulfill them. Just like that. This many pens, that many books, here ya go. (Wow. I thought India was supposed to be a “poor” country and the US was supposed to be a “rich” one, so why do so many of my teacher friends in Oakland have to buy their own chalk out of pocket?) The inquisitive students asked me, “What is the greatest problem facing America right now?” I answered right away, “George Bush,” which earned me a high five from Manu, the Poli Sci major in the passenger seat. (No offense intended to anyone who might feel aligned with him; i’m not a partisan, but i do place a higher value the lives of others and healthy international relations than this president has demonstrated, and i do view his actions as a grave threat to the peace and prosperity of the US and the world.) After giving it moment’s thought, though, i nominated another candidate: “selfishness.”

Speaking of Dubya, he just arrived in India for his first-ever visit to the subcontinent, in search of a face-saving way for the figureheads of both countries to gain domestic and international political capital by coming to an “agreement” about the nookyaler plans that India will pursue whether “the Decider” likes it or not. There were tens of thousands of Indians on hand in Delhi to protest the arrival of the man some referred to as “the world’s greatest terrorist,” and our beloved Arundhati Roy is all over the TV (even BBC World felt it necessary to cut her off repeatedly and change the subject when she made her case compellingly). Today, around 150,000 protested in Delhi, and i’ve been overhearing people criticizing Mr. Bush high and low in West Bengal and Sikkim as well. A dose of comic relief came today , however, when i read in the Kolkata paper that officials from the US Library of Congress attempted to buy some of the protesters’ signs and T-shirts for documentary purposes…

The talk of Dubya and selfishness led to a conversation about the role of educational institutions in preserving, creating, and shaping culture. I thought of the inspiring two-hour talk i heard the Dalai Lama give in Sarnath just a couple of weeks ago, addressing Tibetan and Indian academics, in which he called for a radical revision of the traditional monastic curriculum. It’s not enough to study the traditional Tibetan Buddhist canon, said the envelope-pushing reformer: monastic students must familiarize themselves with the entire body of Buddhist literature, from the Pali and Sanskrit texts to the Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, and other iterations… and, due to the irreversibly globalizing nature of the world of today, monks and nuns must also study at least the basics of the various spiritual traditions of the world as well as western philosophy, the natural sciences, computers, environmental issues, and social activism… and the monasteries, nunneries, and other Tibetan educational institutions must reinvent themselves to serve these updated objectives. If only the rest of the world’s spiritual leaders felt the same way… (Disclaimer: My Tibetan is rather shoddy, so i hope i’m conveying his message accurately enough. I did ask around to double-check, so i’m fairly confident in what i’ve written here, but in case of any errors, i apologize.)

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Interconnectedness vignette: I spent Losar (Tibetan New Year) afternoon at Pemayangtse Gompa (trans: Sublime Lotus Monastery), an 18th-century marvel of otherworldly art and architecture near the remote village of Pelling in West Sikkim. Most of the monks were knackered from two solid days of tantric cham dancing in heavy, hot, god-monster costumes, but when i leapt to help one still-effervescent lama move a butter-lamp table, i discovered he teaches about Buddhism in my alma mater’s Nepal program, which (unbeknownst to me until this moment) had transplanted itself from Nepal proper to Kalimpong a few years back when the so-called “Maoist” violence in Nepal escalated to a civil war. But the world wasn’t quite small enough yet. Standing behind me when i asked this lama how to find Zangdok Pelri, Guru Rinpoche‘s Copper-Colored Paradise, was a friendly South African computer programmer (the first Western face i’d seen in a couple of days) who, it turns out, used to take classes at the DrumCafé in Cape Town, which was founded by relatives of brother Guy Lieberman, who was the person through whom i originally met Leigh, who introduced us to Ani Sonam La… and he knew Guy’s uncle Steve Barnett, who had joined us for one of our programs in Dharamshala. Yep, that’s our global village. 🙂

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And so ends this visit to India. Whatever may come of the possibilities that have emerged, i’m immensely grateful for my time here. So many reminders of simple wisdom too easily forgotten when life speeds up… and some new learning that i can already feel doing its thing in me… opening, softening, humbling, strengthening, forging, inspiring…